In Reply to: Interesting video---in my own experience, I never looked at it posted by traprh on March 25, 2025 at 10:19:32
Chicken winging your shot will lead to an inconsistent shot. Balance and rhythm are also helpful. Feeling for the seams can also be helpful, but that's only when you have time. One can get better and quicker at that with practice, but still you need a moment to be able to do that. Most of the time you just have to shoot with your hands being where they were when you catch the ball.
The finger tip control will give your shot a backspin which will help in giving you a "soft" shot as you sort of roll the ball off your finger tips. Most coaches teach to look at the front of the rim. I was taught and therefore also taught to look at the back of the rim. Either way (I think they both work), the trick is to be consistent. You're absolutely right about practice. After the mechanics and form are established it is entirely up to the player as to how many hours he's going to put in therefore determining how good a shooter he will become. And like you said, not just practicing, but practicing with a purpose and doing it over and over again properly. A player needs to develop self critical skills to make sure he is doing things properly and then be able to adjust when needed.
My experience has taught me that at the college level coaches don't put a lot of time helping to develop individual shooting skills. There just isn't the time. They expect players coming in at that level to have already developed those skills at the lower levels. Clearly there are exceptions. Take Kyle's free throw shooting mechanics. It was clear that someone was working with him to try and get him to be a better free throw shooter by altering his form. But for the most part what I've experienced is that at the college level it is mostly up to the players if they need to improve their shooting otherwise they just sit.